My work is on leadership and performance. I focus on knowledge-intensive organizations such as universities and hospitals. My central argument is that where expert knowledge is the key factor that characterizes an organization, it is expert knowledge that should also be key in the selection of its leader. Drawing on quantitative and qualitative data, I show that organizations led by experts outperform those that are not. Over the last three decades, managers have increased in number, and managerialism has become pervasive in many areas of society. I argue that the swing of the pendulum towards managers and away from expert leaders may have gone too far -- that leaders should first be experts in the core business of their organizations, whether they are bankers, hospital administrators, hi-tech innovators or restaurateurs. Being a good manager alone is, I suggest, not a sufficient condition
